The Plan
“Slow down, I don’t have any shoes on, and I’m in my nightgown,” I whined, crossing my arms to cover my breasts and stepping on yet another stone.
“Consider this a crash course into your new reality, little mouse. It’s called making the best out of what you have,” Cole shot back over his shoulder.
“I have a name, you know.”
“Yeah, and when you stop squealing like a mouse, I’ll use it.”
Stopping in the middle of the road, I flopped to the ground to dig out the gravel from my feet, letting out a frustrated scream.
“I’m not taking one more step like this.
I’m not some prisoner you can drag around as you please in the middle of the night.
You keep telling me I’m going to be a queen, but you treat me like a criminal. ”
Cole stomped over to me, his eyes flashing with his anger, hands balled into fists, but he didn’t move toward me.
Turning, he let out a whistle that sounded like a bird call and waited.
A few moments later, three hooded men seemed to materialize out of the woods like mist. I quickly jumped to my feet and hid behind Cole’s body, unnerved by their sudden appearance.
Why I thought Cole would protect me if something bad went down was beyond me, but it was all I could think to do.
Thankfully, we had nothing to fear from these men because I wasn’t sure I was ready to see where his loyalties were regarding my safety.
“I see you’ve managed to safely bring the queen’s heir out of the manor. Nice to see that even an asshole like you can do something so simple without screwing it up.” One of the men scoffed at Cole.
“I get the feeling you’re jealous, Richard. Are you butthurt because I was chosen over you to get her out safely?” Cole asked.
The young man tossed back his hood, revealing his proud features and glaring bright blue eyes.
“Some of us have to earn our right to wear that symbol you have around your neck. Unlike others, who are simply born within the right family,” Richard snarled, pointing at the necklace I noticed Cole wore.
It was a simple black metal medallion with a blooming rose and a dragon flying across it, but its meaning was lost on me.
“You can keep bitching if it helps you sleep at night, but we all know why you still haven’t been given yours,” Cole said, his body tense and ready to act. “Where are the horses? We need to get Lady Cassarah to the meeting spot, or this whole thing will fall apart. Then whose fuck-up will that be?”
“Why is she only in a nightgown? Didn’t you let the poor woman get dressed before you dragged her through the woods? She’s going to be your queen, and you show her such disrespect?” Richard asked, shocked to see what I was wearing.
“Give her your own damn cloak if you’re worried about it,” Cole spat, brushing past Richard into the woods, the other two men following him.
Richard walked over to me, taking off his cloak and wrapping it around me. “There, that should be better. And a bit warmer on this chilly night.”
Cole and the others returned with horses, Richard and the other two swiftly mounting theirs while Cole double-checked the saddle on his mount. It seemed as if he was trying to collect himself. Apparently, something Richard said seemed to have set him off.
“Do I have a horse to ride?” I asked, breaking the strained silence.
“You’ll ride behind me. It’ll be faster since we know where we’re going,” Cole said.
I was a little taken aback by this statement.
It was improper for a young woman to be that close to a man who wasn’t her husband.
I cleared my throat to say so, but before I could get the words out, he’d mounted his horse and held out his hand to me.
I looked at it dumbly, unsure of the right choice in this situation.
I didn’t have any training on how to deal with mercenaries or their customs.
“We don’t have all night, little mouse. You can sit atop the horse properly, or I can sling you over like a sack of potatoes. Your choice,” Cole said, sighing deeply, obviously tired of dealing with me.
Knowing I didn’t have any other choice, I grasped his hand tightly and was slung up behind him.
When I settled myself as comfortably as I could behind the saddle, I looked for a place to hold onto something—anything that wasn’t him.
Before I could figure that out, Cole kicked his horse into motion, forcing me to cling to him or fall off.
Once balanced, I loosened my hold on him and found my rhythm with the horse’s movements. My cheeks flamed red with embarrassment as my chest pressed to his back, and I felt Cole’s hard abs under my hands. I tried to hold on without feeling like I was groping him, but I wasn’t sure I succeeded.
For some odd reason, his citrus and pine scent set me at ease.
I wanted to let my cheek rest against his strong back, but I knew he would not be pleased with me touching him more than necessary.
Unfortunately, he was the only somewhat familiar thing around me, and it was apparently playing tricks on my mind.
I knew he didn’t like me, so I shouldn’t let myself be drawn to him.
It didn’t take us long to get to Royal City limits since cutting through the woods was a more direct route than taking the main road.
Cole and the others reined in their horses and dismounted quickly, and I followed suit as fast as I could, nearly landing on the ground again.
I noticed there were ten other horses that’d been left in the woods along with our four.
These must belong to Ballard and the others, which meant I was close to getting some answers about what was going on.
Apparently, though, I was mistaken about being close to our destination. It seemed we still had some walking to do.
“Do you really expect me to keep walking barefoot in the dark?” I asked Cole, peering out from under the large hood of Richard’s cloak.
“Yes. Now be quiet. We can’t risk anyone in the city alerting the captain of the King’s Guard we’re here,” he grumbled.
“So it would be bad for me to start screaming that I’ve been kidnapped, right?”
Cole stopped and looked back at me as if he wanted to strangle me. “That would be a very bad idea, little mouse. If you’re feeling such urges, let me warn you that I will gladly gag you to prevent events like that from happening.”
“No need to go to such drastic measures. If someone would simply carry me so I don’t have to keep walking and getting stabbed in the foot, I wouldn’t feel the need to alert anyone to my plight.”
“Goddamn fucking prissy maidens. How the hell did I get stuck with this shit job,” Cole muttered as he kneeled in front of me. “Hop on and be quick about it.”
Not wanting him to change his mind, I scrambled onto his back, wrapping my arms around his neck.
He tucked his arms around my legs as he stood, keeping me from sliding off.
I grinned from under my hood, pleased I had finally won an argument.
Thankfully, we moved much faster now that I wasn’t slowing them down.
When we reached the outer edge of the city, Richard led us into a small, nondescript alehouse that reeked of stale ale and unwashed men. Cole dropped me on my feet and headed up a steep staircase into an attic room.
“You’re here at last! You boys made good time. Did you bring her with you, Cole?” Ballard asked from where he sat at a low table.
Cole’s answer to his grandfather’s question was to simply pull back the hood of my cloak, revealing my face to the rest of the room.
“Come, sit. You’ve had a busy night,” Ballard said as he stood and pulled out a chair for me.
I smiled at him as I gratefully took my seat.
At least someone in this group knew how to treat a proper lady.
I looked down at the table to see it covered in various maps of the city and the castle.
Surprised and immediately curious, I leaned in to get a closer look at the maps of the castle.
They were so detailed they had to have been made by someone who had spent a significant amount of time there.
“What do you need with a map of the castle?” I asked no one in general.
The room was silent for a moment, causing me to look up at Ballard.
“Didn’t Cole explain everything to you?” he asked, frowning.
The blank look on my face must have answered that question for him.
“Tomorrow, with your help, we are planning on saving your dragon and getting you both out of Royal City. Once we get you back to the clan lands, then you will be crowned our queen.”
“Don’t let her fool you, Granddad. She was in the library when we were talking to her father. She knows more than she’s letting on,” Cole said, scowling at me.
“It seems that mercenary blood runs strong in you, no matter how hard your family tried to smother it out of you,” Ballard said with a grin.
Seeing that playing dumb wasn’t going to get Cole in trouble or gain me more information, I went back over the facts I had in front of me. “So how do you plan on getting into the castle? From what I can tell, we have limited options, and none seem ideal for sneaking in unnoticed.”
With that question, all eyes in the room were on me.
Some held surprise while others held mistrust at my conclusion.
They didn’t know it was one of the games my father and I played when we both got bored studying past wars.
Instead of just reading about our history, we would get out maps and relive the battle as if we were both commanding officers planning our next move.
In some cases, we found that a battle could have been won if they’d looked harder at what they were dealing with.
Ballard cleared his throat and took a large gulp of his ale before he answered me. “I agree with you. There are not many ways to get in and out of the castle. As you saw, most places will get us spotted. Although I think if we take a different approach, it might be easier than we thought.”
“What do you mean?” I asked.